Bag pack and a holder therefor



V. G. BJERUM Jan. 2, 1968 BAG PACK AND A HOLDER THEREFOR 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 5, 1966 INVENTOR. v Idea/v: 6*, HU /seam M w BAG PACK AND A HOLDER THEREFOR 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 5, 1966 INVENTOR. Vie/v5 a BMEEd/M United States Patent 3,361,294 BAG PACK AND A HOLDER THEREFOR Verne G. Bjerum, P.O. Box 1142, Orange, Calif. 92669 Filed July 5, 1966, Ser. No. 562,554 9 Claims. (Cl. 22126) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A bag dispensing apparatus and bag therefor to be used in conjunction with merchandise displaying counters or bins to provide convenient and fast access to the bags. In one version of the bag dispensing apparatus, a bag pack having a quantity of easily detachable bags preferably of thin, transparent plastic is suspended above the display counter or bin by means of an associated bag pack sup porting member and tubular supporting column fixed through the display counter or bin. The bag pack supporting member has a pair of parallel spaced rod members which horizontally extend from the end of the supporting column to form a fork-like configuration. A retaining collar on the upper portion of the bag pack has a pair of holes which cooperate with the rod members to suspend the bag pack from the supporting member.

This invention relates to dispensing apparatus and more particularly to means for retaining and dispensing bags.

This invention finds its most important application in connection with markets employing self-service systems in which the customers select the kinds and quantities of the commodities or articles they wish to purchase and place them in bags for carrying to and for inspection and weighing by the cashier.

Heretofore, such bags were usually provided in more or less random arrangement on retaining shelves or in containers located in relatively inconvenient, hard-toreach positions at low levels in or beneath the bins or cabinets containing the commodities or articles to be placed in the bags. Such shelves or containers were often not in plain sight and therefore were difficult to locate, and furthermore after a period of time, such bags often became so disarranged as to make it diflicult for the customer to select a bag of a particular size. Such disarrangement of the bags frequently resulted in numbers of them being dropped onto the floor with consequent contamination and the necessity for their being discarded.

Also, by reason of the heretofore unsatisfactory bag holding and dispensing systems, it was impractical properly and conveniently to dispense bags which were manufactured of materials other than the usual relatively stiff kinds of paper used for such purposes. However, the employment of paper bags has had a number of disadvantages, particularly in connection with their use in food markets, among such disadvantages being their low wet strength and lack of transparency. The disadvantage of their low wet strength obviously is that many of the foodstuffs purchased may be wet or spillage or leakage may occur, thereby resulting in failure of the bag and spillage of the foodstuffs. In order to minimize such wet failures of the paper bags and also because of their inherently limited strength, even when dry, it was often necessary to use two or more bags placed inside one another. This was a wasteful and expensive practice.

The disadvantage of the lack of transparency of paper bags resides in the necessity for the cashier to open each bag to determine what it contains, resulting in much wasted time and effort. Moreover, even under such inspection it cannot be readily determined whether the contents of the bag is uniform throughout its depth. As beforementioned, paper bags at best are inherently weak and particularly when they become wet, they are usually unsuited for re-use. A particular advantage of this invention in furnishing a practical dispensing system for transparent bags capable of re-use, resides in the opportunity it affords for placing the name of the market on a conspicuous surface of each of the bags with the resultant advertising it affords during such re-use by the customer.

Accordingly, it is a principal object of this invention to provide a bag dispensing system which eliminates many of the disadvantages and difficulties heretofore inherent in such systems.

Another object of this invention is to provide improved bag dispensing apparatus.

Another object of this invention is to provide improved accessibility to and convenience in the use of such bags.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a bag dispensing system whereby bags composed of flexible transparent plastic material may be satisfactorily contained within and dispensed from a bag dispensing device.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide an improved form of bag which is transparent.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide bags which have improved strength characteristics particularly with relation to their wet strength characteristics.

These and other objects and advantages and features of novelty will be evident hereinafter.

In the drawings which show by way of illustration a presently preferred embodiment of the invention, and in which like reference characters designate the same or similar parts throughout the several views:

FIGURE 1 is a reduced sized, perspective view of the general assembly of the bag pack and bag dispensing apparatus of the invention, and illustrating a typical environment of its use;

FIGURE 2 is an exploded, perspective view showing the principal apparatus elements of the bag dispensing instrumentality indicated within the arrowed circle 22 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary, detailed, perspective View of an alternative mounting arrangement for the bag dispensing apparatus of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 4 is a view, partly in elevation, of still another alternative mounting arrangement for the bag dispensing apparatus of FIGURES 1 and 2;

FIGURE 5 is a view, partly in plan and partly in horizontal section, of the same apparatus shown within the arrowed circle 2-2 of FIGURE 1 and also in FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 6 is a perspective view of a single bag pack adapted to be mounted on the dispensing apparatus as shown in FIGURES 1 and 4;

FIGURE 7 is a horizontal, sectional view taken on line 77 of FIGURE 6; and

FIGURE 8 is a front, elevational view of a single bag of the kind employed in the bag pack illustrated in FIGURE 6.

Referring first primarily to FIGURE 1, a typical arrangement of the bag supporting and dispensing apparatus assembly is illustrated generally at 15 mounted in a convenient location upon an upper surface 12 of a merchandise container 14. The container 14 may be of any suitable kind which, for example, is herein illustrated as a double bin containing in opposite sides thereof the desired commodities or articles to be bagged, such as for example apples, potatoes, cabbages or the like as illustrated at 16.

In the installation of the apparatus as shown in FIG- URE 1, the bag supporting and dispensing apparatus assembly 10 comprises a tubular support having a vertical base column 18, the lower end of which is fixed to a base plate 20 which is in turn secured to the upper surface 12 of the container 14 by means of a plurality of screws or bolts as shown at 22.

In other arrangements and environments of the apparatus it may be desirable to have the lower end of the base column 18 fixed to a base plate or fitting of a different shape to accommodate the apparatus to different supporting structures. For example, under some conditions it may be desirable to have the lower end of the base column 18 attached to the top portion of a channel shaped base fitting Ztla adapted to seat over the upper edge of a bin divider or wall member 21 as shown in FIGURE 3. Under other conditions it may be desirable to have the base column shown at 18a obliquely flattened adjacent its lower end as shown at 2015 for attachment to and installation upon an upper surface 12a of a cabinet or container as shown in FIGURE 4.

In the installation shown in FIGURE 1 the upper portion of the base column 18 of the tubular support takes the general form of a Y having a pair of curved tubular members 24 and 26 terminating in a pair of tubular arms 28 and 30, the outer ends of which extend horizontally opposite one another, preferably at readily visible positions at convenient height to be reached by the container, directly above the commodity-containing portions of the bin 14. The lower ends of either one or both of the curved tubular members 24 or 26 may be formed integrally with or detachably fixed to the top of the base column 18, as illustrated at 32, such that either one or both of the arm members 24 and 26 may be employed as desired such as to be adaptable to the particular configuration of cabinet, container or bin with which it is to be used.

Fixed in the outer ends of each of the tubular arms 28 and 30 is a bag pack supporting and bag dispensing instrumentality shown generally at 35, one of such instrumentalities being shown as loaded with several bag packs 64 Which are hereinafter described. Each such dispensing instrumentality 35 comprises a T-shaped base fitting 34 having a crosswise, normally horizontally positioned, rectangular sectioned, support bar 36 which is provided on one side at its mid-section with an integrally formed laterally extending boss 38 from which extends a coaxial, cylindrical shank 40 of reduced outside diameter making a firm fit within the inside diameter of the end of its corresponding supporting tubular arm 28 or 30, as the case may be. The shank 46) is secured in the outer end of its corresponding tubular arm 28 or 30 by means of a rivet as shown at 42 extending crosswise through coaxially drilled holes in the wall of the tubular member as shown at 44 and 46 in the shank 40 as shown at 43.

The shank 40 and boss 38 are formed with a common, normally horizontal slot 50 of a width such as to receive the crosswise interconnecting mid-portion 52 of a U- shaped bag pack supporting fork shown generally at 54. The U-shaped bag pack supporting fork 54 is formed with a pair of parallel, oppositely spaced-apart rod tines 56 and 58 which, in the assembly, as best shown in FIGURE 5, extend from the mid-portion 52 on the back side of the supporting bar 36, through a pair of semi-cylindrical notches 60 and 62 formed in the opposite ends of the supporting bar 36. The mid-portion of the fork 54 is thereby clamped in the slot 50 between the back side of supporting bar 36 and the outer end of its corresponding supported arm, thereby firmly securing the fork 54 in position in the bag dispensing instrumentality 35.

Referring next primarily to FIGURES 6, 7 and 8, a bag pack assembly adapted for use, as shown in FIGURE 1, in connection with the hereinbefore described bag pack supporting and bag dispensing instrumentality 35 is illustrated generally at 64.

The bag pack 64- comprises a stack of a plurality of face-to-face superposed bags as shown generally at 66. A stack of 100 bags in each bag pack has been found satisfactory and convenient for use in connection with this invention. Each of the bags, one of which is illustrated at 68 in FIGURE 8, consists of a thin walled envelope closed along the sides 70 and 72 and bottom 74, and open at the top edge 76 thereof, and each is provided across both side wall portions adjacent to and parallel with the upper edge 76 with a tear line as illustrated at 78 to facilitate manual detachment of each bag from the stack retainer as will be hereinafter more fully explained. The tear lines 78 may be of any suitable character to provide a line of weakness, such as a series of spaced-apart perforations, slits, or scored lines of reduced material thickness. The bag stack 66 is bound together at the upper end portion thereof within an encircling, partially enclosing stack retainer collar 80, by suitable means such as, for example, a plurality of clinched wire staples 81 which pass thicknesswise through the walls of the stack retainer collar and through the upper marginal portions of the bags 68 of the stack 66, intermediate the tear lines 78 and the upper edges 76 of the bags.

The stack retainer collar 86 may take different forms, but preferably, as herein illustrated, is formed in one piece of relatively rigid material such as heavy paper or cardboard, folded along break lines extending along the corner edges as shown at 82, 84, 86 and 88 to form a stack encircling and binding means which, in horizontal section as shown in FIGURE 7, is generally rectangular in shape. The opposite ends of the thus folded material, forming the pack retainer collar 80 are closed and joined end to end along a vertical back line as shown at $0 by means of the central one of the beforementioned clinched staples 81. The material of the pack retainer collar is preferably cut in a pattern such that upon its being folded as hereinbefore described, a pair of downwardly extending, inwardly facing, angular shaped leg portions 92 and 94 are thereby formed which extend over and partially enclose the upper portions of the outwardly facing edges of the bag stack 66, thereby serving to restrain the upper portions of the bag stack 66 to a relatively compact form, yet providing an open area on one side of the stack as shown at 98, permitting most of the outwardly facing side of the outermost bag at least on one side of the stack to remain accessible and exposed to view.

The bags 68 may be made of any suitable material such as the various kinds of paper conventionally used for such purposes, but they are preferably, in connection with this invention as hereinbefore explained, made of a relatively thin but strong, transparent plastic sheet material such as, for example, polyethylene.

The name of the store or market in which the bag dispensing system of this invention is used may be printed on one or both of the side surfaces of the bags 68 as illustrated at 96 in FIGURES 6 and 8 for the advantageous purpose, as hereinbefore mentioned, of identification of the market from which the bags originated in event of subsequent reuse of the bags for other purposes.

It is to be understood that the foregoing is illustrative only and that the invention is not limited thereby, but may include various modifications and changes made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a bag dispenser, apparatus comprising:

a tubular base member adapted to be fixed to and extend generally outwardly from a supporting structure;

a supporting member extending from said base member, said supporting member including spaced generally horizontal rod members adjacent to and extending base member; means engaging said supporting member and said base member to rigidly hold said supporting member to said base member;

and a bag pack including a stack of a plurality of flat, face to face superposed bags, said pack including a stack binding member holding said stack together and to which said bags are detachably attached, said binding member having at least a pair of spaced-apart holes through which said rod members extend,

whereby said bag pack may be removably suspended from said supporting member, and one or more of such bags may be manually detached from said stack by pulling from the bag pack in a direction transverse to said supporting member.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which said stack binding member includes a supporting collar member encircling the upper end portion of said stack and to which said bags are detachably attached adjacent the upper ends thereof;

and in which said pair of spaced-apart holes extend from face to face through said collar member, through which said rod members extend.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2 in which the wall of each of said bags to be detached from said bag pack as aforesaid, is provided with a weakened tear line generally parallel with and adjacent to the upper edge of said pack.

4. In a bag dispenser, apparatus comprising:

a tubular base member adapted to be fixed at one end to a supporting structure with the other end thereof extending in a generally horizontal position;

supporting means attached to said other end of said base member, said supporting means including a T shaped fitting having a cross bar formed with ppositely axially facing notches in opposite ends thereof, and with a shank extending transversely from its mid portion, said shank making telescopic attachment to the end of said other end of said base member, with said cross bar in a generally horizontal position, and said shank being formed with an opening extending diametrically therethrough adjacent the shank side of said cross bar and directed parallel with the horizontal axis thereof;

a U-shaped fork member having a pair of parallel, spaced-apart rod members joined at one end by a central, crosswise-extending portion thereof, said fork member being positioned with the said crosswiseextending portion thereof extending through said opening in said shank and clamped between said shank side of said cross bar and the adjacent end of said other end of, said base member, and with the said rod members engaging said notches;

whereby said rod members are supported, axially ex tending from said other end of said supporting memher;

and a bag pack comprising a stack of a plurality of flat bags bound together in face to face, superposed relation therein, said stack having a retaining collar member encircling the upper end portion of said stack and within which said bags of said stack are detachably bound, adjacent the upper ends thereof, said collar member having a pair of spaced-apart holes extending from face to face therethrough, through which said rod members of said fork member supportingly extend,

whereby said bag pack may be suspended in a generally vertical plane, is readily installed on or removed from said supporting fork, and whereby one or more of such bags may be manually detached from said bag pack by pulling from the bag pack in a generally vertical direction, transverse to the axes of said rod members.

5. In a bag dispenser, apparatus comprising:

a curved tubular base member adapted to be fixed at one end to and to extend vertically from a supporting structure with the other end thereof extending in a generally horizontal position;

supporting means attached to said other end of said base member, said supporting means including a T shaped fitting having a cross bar formed with oppositely axially facing notches in opposite ends thereof, and with a shank extending transversely from its mid portion, said shank making telescopic attachment to the end of said other end of said base member, with said cross bar in a generally horizontal position,

and said shank being formed with an opening extending diametrally therethrough adjacent the shank side of said cross bar and directed parallel with the horizontal axis thereof;

a U-shaped fork member having a pair of parallel, spaced-apart rod members joined at one end by a central, crosswise-extending portion thereof, said fork member being positioned with the said crosswise-extending portion thereof extending through said opening in said shank and clamped between said shank side of said cross bar and the adjacent end of said other end of said base member, and with the said rod members engaging said notches,

whereby said rod members are supported, axially extending from said other end of said supporting memher;

and a bag pack comprising a stack of a plurality of flat bags bound together in face to face, superposed relation therein, said stack having a retaining collar member encircling the upper end portion of said stack and within which said bags of said stack are detachably bound, adjacent the upper ends thereof, said collar member having a pair of spaced-apart holes extending from face to face therethrough, through which i said rod members of said fork member supportingly extend,

whereby said bag pack may be suspended in a generally vertical plane, is readily installed on or removed from said supporting fork, and whereby one or more of such bags may be manually detached from said bag pack by pulling from the bag pack in a generally vertical direction, transverse to the axes of said rod members.

6. A bag pack for a bag dispenser, comprising:

a stack comprising a plurality of flat, face to face superposed bags;

a relatively rigid retaining collar member encircling the upper end portion of said stack including portions of the side edges of said stack and within which said bags are detachably bound adjacent the upper ends thereof, and from which the lower end of said stack extends;

a pair of spaced-apart holes extending from face to face through said collar member, through which dispensing supporting members may extend for suspending said bag pack in a generally vertical plane.

'7. Apparatus according to claim 6, and a tear line formed across the face of the Wall of said bags parallel with and adjacent to the upper end of said stack, said stack being detachably attached within said collar member intermediate the said tear lines of said bags and said upper end of said stack.

8. Apparatus according to claim 6 in which the lower central portion of at least one face of said collar member is cut away to form a generally downwardly facing U-shaped opening for the corresponding area of the face of said stack,

whereby the faces of said bags in said stack are exposed to facilitate removal of bags therefrom.

9. Apparatus according to claim 6 in which the said bags are composed of a transparent plastic material.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 307,698 11/1884 Yengling 248-400 2,997,167 8/1961 Westfall 206-507 3,126,094 3/1964 Arnold et al. 206-57 ROBERT B. REEVES, Primary Examiner. WALTER SOBIN, Examiner.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3,361,294 January 2, 1968 Verne G. Bjerum It is certified that error appears in the above identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 4, line 63, before "base" insert from said Signed and sealed this 28th day of October 1969.

(SEAL) Attest:

Edward M. Fletcher, Jr.

Commissioner of Patents Attesting Officer WILLIAM E. SCHUYLER, JR. 

